EFFICIENT RESPIRATION. 173 



ness, which is then, the most favourable result, at 

 by the prevalence of disease and delicacy in the 

 progeny. It may not be easy to enforce upon the 

 young and inexperienced the requisite degree of 

 attention to these circumstances ; but surely educa- 

 tion, especially when backed by example, might do 

 much, if the young were properly instructed, at an 

 early period, in the leading facts and principles of the 

 human constitution. Where there are hereditary 

 precocity and delicacy of frame, marriage, instead 

 of being hastened, ought invariably to be delayed at 

 least till the fullest maturity and consolidation of the 

 system : otherwise the consequences will be equally 

 unhappy for the individual and for his future progeny. 

 During growth, and for a considerable time after 

 growth has ceased, the constitution is still imper- 

 fect, even in healthy subjects, and wants the en- 

 during strength which it afterward acquires in 

 mature age, and the possession of which marks the 

 period which nature has fixed for the exercise of 

 the functions of reproduction. Many young people 

 of both sexes fall sacrifices to early marriages, who 

 might have withstood the ordinary risks of life, and 

 lived together in happiness, if they had delayed their 

 union for a few years, and allowed time for the 

 consolidation of their constitutions. 



I have urged this point strongly, because heredi- 

 tary predisposition is, avowedly and beyond all doubt, 

 the most frequent source of the more serious forms of 

 pulmonary disease, and it would be worse than folly to ; 

 allow past and painful experience to go for nothing. 

 Medical men have much in their power in prevent- 

 ing such violations of the laws of the Creator, at 

 least where they are regarded, as they always ought 

 to be, as the friends as well as the professional 

 advisers of the family. 



The SECOND requisite to the well-being of the lungs, 

 and to the free and salutary exercise of respiration, 

 is a due supply of rich and healthy blood. When, 

 P2 



